Not
too much is known yet but T-Mobile has unveiled today that the German mobile
operator will show its latest Windows Mobile Professional smartphone during this
week's CeBIT. T-Mobile Germany calls it the "MDA compact IV" and according to
Deutsche Telekom's press release, it will features a an exclusive T-Mobile
design, HSDPA, a 3 megapixel autofocus camera, 4 GB internal memory and a VGA
(640x480) touchscreen.
While T-Mobile hasn't unveiled a photo of the device yet, it can be expected
that this is another Windows Mobile smartphone and Deutsche Telekom released
this rendering (which clearly shows a Windows Mobile Standard smartphone rather
than a Professional smartphone which the compact IV has to be if it features a
touchscreen):

With a 24 months Relax 100 plan, the MDA compact IV will be available from
May 2008 for 111 Euro.

UPDATE: Sources close to the company confirmed us that the new MDA compact IV is based on a new, yet unknown HTC Windows Mobile Professional smartphone which most likely runs on Windows Mobile 6.1. Other expected features are quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and triband UMTS/HSDPA up to 7.2 Kbps, Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi b/g. GPS support
isn't confirmed yet.

UPDATE: Indeed is T-Mobile showing on its CeBIT stand exactly the same
device we have exclusively pictured above, including the Home and Back keys. So,
according to T-Mobile's CeBIT stand, the device you see above is the "MDA
compact IV"! T-Mobile declined to comment the design-inconsistency and further
features.

That rendering suggests the T-Mobile Shadow is to be released more widely soon.

Posted by Moaske on 03.03.08 - 19:17:32

Looks a lot like a reworked Polaris to me... :-)

Posted by Windows Mobile User on 03.03.08 - 19:57:34

Guys, can't you read: "the new MDA compact IV is based on a new, yet unknown HTC Windows Mobile Professional smartphone"?Therefore I doubt it's a Shadow or Polaris, especially because the Shadow is a Standard, not a Professional 2G smartphone and the Polaris doesn’t features VGA but QVGA only.

Posted by Surur on 03.03.08 - 21:52:32

You miss the point. The rendering is clearly not the MDA 4, but it does look like the shadow, but not in T-Mobile USA livery, which suggest that IN ADDITION to the MDA 4 the Shadow will also be distributed outside USA.

Posted by Arne Hess on 03.03.08 - 23:31:07

I've just updated the rendering with what I got from T-Mobile. Clearly it's not the MDA compact IV (because it's showing a Windows Mobile Standard smartphone, as I said before) but T-Mobile uses the rendering a a "placeholder" for the MDA compact IV (the rendering is taken from a PDF I've received from T-Mobile).There is no indication yet, that T-Mobile will release the Shadow outside the U.S. and whatever the device above is, it's a 3G device (you can see the UMTS-typical video telephony cam on the upper left).

Posted by surur on 04.03.08 - 00:55:20

Interesting. Thx.

Posted by dave on 04.03.08 - 09:46:24

"clearly shows a Windows Mobile Standard smartphone rather than a Professional smartphone"

Placeholder pic or not, what makes you think it's 'clearly' Standard? As another comment says, it looks like a reworked Polaris, which is 'clearly' Professional'.

Posted by Arne Hess on 04.03.08 - 10:53:50

The Home and Back buttons which are only used for Standard smartphones. Professional smartphones doesn't have Home and Back but Windows and OK buttons.Therefore the used rendering isn't showing the actual device, not if it has a touchscreen, which is on the other hand one of the few features T-Mobile mentioned and which are confirmed.

UPDATE: Please read my "Update 2" above. The initial comment was wrong. It turns out that the rendering we presented yesterday is indeed showing the device, T-Mobile shows on CeBIT but something is fishy. A Professional touchscreen smartphone (which the MDA compact IV is, that's clear and confirmed by T-Mobile) with Standard non-touchscreen buttons?Either this is a pretty early prototype (and the reason T-Mobile only has one at CeBIT which is previewed under glass only) or HTC/T-Mobile/Microsoft are working on something we haven't heard about yet...